Broken Empire
by huluewo
Summary: Inspired by CheshireP's Shattered Glass serise, where Ben is the Evil overlord ( misconception ), Rook is Ben's partner/minion/ love interest (?), It is a reversed universe compare the Ben story we are familiar with. Also need to warm readers: This is a BenRook/Brooken story, in another words... please restrain yourself from reading it if you are not into that kind of stuff.
1. Prologue

I …translated the first chapter of the reversed universe of Ben 10 Omniverse. Once again, I steal the design from ChershireP's shattered I am heartless that way.

I already finished the story in Chinese, however translating it into English demands a lot of backwards thinking. (Also, it's really challenge for me to write in English. You are bound to see some grammar mistakes and incohesive sentences down the line) If you don't mind those mistakes, move on. If you do mind, move on to another blog…

This is the first draft, I will go back to correct mistakes and re-articulate.

As you can predict I am going to have a hell of fun time writing Rook's dialog. It will be OC since his words are provocative to start with. Forgive me.

**About the Story**

…kinda lazy to talk about that, I think I left the story line somewhere before this blog post. Long story short, Ben= Evil overlord ( misconception ), Rook = Ben's partner/minion/ love interest (?), location: Noah (earth was ruined 7/8 years ago)

Also the first chapter has probably the most fighting scene compare to the rest of the story, I am pretty bad at describing movements and combats.


	2. Chapter 1

**Story One- Rook**

Soak in the warmth of water, isolated by a layer of blurry blue, saw the expression of a lonely child. He is wearing a shredded green cape, the scars crawl on his young face, as if it was burnt and eroded. A human child…that skin with the scars is not revisable; they do not process that level of self-generation and cell repair ability.

It is such a shame, he has a gorgeous face, brunette hair, the eye bags are visible, skin is pale from lack of exposed under the sunlight. Then I stop breathing…without knowing how I used to breath under the water, in front of his emerald green eyes. Those eyes gaze at me, flame indistinctly in the purple. Those beautiful green eyes, why are they not delighted by smiles, nor love.

It feels detached, nothing belongs to me, even though I want to reach out to him, to touch and feel the texture of his face, all I can touch is a layer of glass. Gently, surrounded by the warmth of a womb, only those green eyes, protecting me…

"Rook, not now…"

Rook….is that my name?

I open my mouth, immediately bubbles came out of my mouth, once again I forgot I was in a liquid healing tank.

Who…am I?

This is a terrifying thought.

Why am I here?

"Rook…wait till you recover, then we can talk, as for now, you need to sleep." The human lifts his arm and put up his palm against the glass on the other side. This motion is meaningless as we still cannot reach each other, I want to object, yet the sleepiness is taking over my mind. I smile to him before I start close my eyes.

Save.

It is truly a magic word that echoes in my mind, a feeling I have been searching for a long time.

"Ben…"

I heard my own voice coming out of my throat, soon turns into bubbles. The green eyes lighten up in front of me, the palm on the glass push even closer.

"Rook."

His voice is scratchy, like human in their teenage years turning from a child to an adult. There are a lot for them to look forward to. My vision start to fail me as everything goes blur, there is nothing I can do other than release a relaxed sigh, close my eyes and give in.

**Chapter 1**

"Boom!"

Rook shoots his eyes opened, he struggled to get up from the tank, and the door opens with his movement. He tries his best to move every single piece of his muscle and climb out of the tank. His body trembles a little while leaning against the wall. He catches the well folded clothes at the corner of the table, and quickly puts it on.

This bladed armor fits nicely to his body, Rook flip his arms a couple times, feeling very content. The loud explosion happens again outside, he shifts his attention away from his clothing, grabs a gun from the side and walks through the door.

He steps over the door, onto the not so rich soil, Rook looks up the bloody red sky, coal dark land, the wind blows to his face with a rusted smell. Fortunately, the temperature is neither too cold nor too warm, He can tell he has a thin blue coat on his skin.

He is not human—the reflection of his blade tells him, iris of the sunset gold, feline like eye corners, three strips of hair lines, and that rather scary lanuginose. Revonnahgander—he says to himself, presently surprised with his knowledge, consider he remembers nothing else. Also unsure about his status, he can feel his weight, strength and muscle tone — has he always been this buff? Revonnahgander should be a light, skinny and solid race. They should also be not as uninhibited.

Rook looks at himself on the blade for a few seconds, and decided he likes this look. It might take some time for him to fully get used to this look, but he is not objective against the body and its potential.

"Boom-!"

Headwind direction? Rook turns around and sprints.

The body is lighter than he thought, Rook obvers his speed, being even more satisfied than before.

This is more time consuming than he thought.

Ben waves his arm to control his Galvanic Mechamorph cape, only finds out it doesn't absorb all the attacks. His right hand quickly transforms into diamond and shoots out projectiles. He didn't foresee intergalactic police getting involved, he usually dealt with assassins, one at a time. Of course, the fact that he defeated the last police might contribute to their current decision.

Ben is breathing heavily after another backflip that merely escape the attack. He doesn't want to transform completely into another species, that puts too much weight on his body, but it does not look like he has a choice here.

The enemy appears behind his back, within those 0.1 second, Ben shivers. He also didn't know he was that close to an enemy. This fatal mistake might harm he greatly that he would not be able to recover in time.

"Chink!"

The sound of metal hits and rubs against each other, yet he doesn't feel any pain. Ben turns his head around and sees a strong shoulder.

He saw Rook in the healing tank, of course he knows that was Rook. But…man, he didn't know Rook is so tall. Ben can only match up to Rook's shoulder.

How depressing!

Ben decides to refocus on the enemy in front of him, "you can deal with the other one."

He shakes his fingers into narrow sharp diamonds, walking with a grimy smile on his face.

His body contains almost all the gene of all the species of the universe, and he mastered around 500 of them. This is why he always wins, this is why he must fight on. The intergalactic police has proclaimed that Ben Teynneson, and all the things he wanted to protect are dangerous existences, pest to the universe, and as menacing as cancer.

Rook can feel the anger coming out of Ben, he is unclear why Ben is angry, hopefully it's not because of him. However, he does not have the leisure to think any further. Not that his opponent, a Florauna can post too much threat. He still wants to be careful around their self-generated explosives.

It is really a pity. Rook sigh quietly, his opponent is not a melee type. He wants to know how far his strength can take him, how sharp are his claws, if he can kill with one strike. And ,the thrive of feeling blood bursting out of the body of his enemy and running down his hand… those experiences have to wait.

…Is…this him?

Rook pulls out the blade embedded at the back of his hand, forcefully takes a hit, his body does not scream in pain while the bomb explodes. He runs through the smoke and cuts enemy's body in half, before the florauna can recover, Rook strikes an ice capsule into the wound. With a blink of eye, the capsule breaks in half inside the wound, slowly freezes up the body.

Not big enough of a challenge, he thinks to himself, draws back his blades, about to walk away. The fight on the other side is almost over as well.

"you ….are Revonnahgander." The officer on the ground still shaking his body in ice, using his last breath try to converse.

"I am." Rook answers calmly.

"then why…help this evil overlord, Benjamin Tennyson …he killed your people…ran, he's…from your planet." The ice keeps growing, almost covers up his face as he laying there facing his imminent death.

Why indeed… although Ben seems to be the defensiveless, it doesn't necessarily prove that he is the innocent. Rook tilts his head towards Ben. The human is obviously toying with this pray. He is even more sure Ben is not a saint. Rook can choose to stop the fight from the beginning, but instead, he chose to join Ben.

"this is none of your concern." Rook once again looks at the officer on the ground, answers with a dark and cold voice. The horrified face is soon being sealed by the ice.

Rook bends down his body, and gives him a final punch. His opponent shatters into hundreds of pieces under Rook's fist.

The scream of another officer indicates the end of this fight.

Rook lifts his head, finally gets a clear look of the human boy. Ben is skinny, as if he had never eaten enough. To this boy, killing is not something new. Blood splatters on his face as he finishes the job. Yet he doesn't blink, nor express any other typical human emotion, as if he accidently step on an ant.

It is almost impossible to make the connection between this fragile body and the ruleless killer. What do they call him—the evil overlord.

Rooks smiles again as Ben walks closer to him.

The evil and heartless overlord of the universe—Benjamin Tennyson. Somehow, this title tickles him.

"What's so funny?" This is the first time he hears Ben's voice crystal clearly, a little bit magnetic, still has room to grow. Ben could be more matured, stronger, and more…cruel.

"I was informed of your title." Rook straightens up his back. Even though he did assist Ben, it does not guarantee his safety, not with a person with such title.

Also, part of his instinct tells him, Ben would not harm him, and he cannot harm Ben either.

What has him been through…why would he has such strange thoughts, why would he has such feeling towards a human?

Rook didn't react until a hand start to rub against his face. The human came so close to him within a moment of distraction, shared his warmth with Rook —he could have break Rook's neck, but he didn't.

"Still a little bit wet, you came because of the noise?"

Rook goes blank for a second, then realize Ben was referring to his fur, he did just come out of the water healing tank not long ago.

"You have done well, come with me." Ben lays down his hand, turn to another direction.

"Ben….I…."

"Rook, Revonnahgander." Ben didn't look back.

"I am aware of my identity, thank you for your hint." Rook is being ticked off by Ben's cluelessness, "Why am I here? Where is here?"

"This planet is called Noah." Ben picks up the hint of anger in Rook's tone as he smiles, " the planet doesn't revolve much, it also travels from universe to universe, people normally cannot trace Noah."

"Noah…" Rook tries to look up this word in his brain, the effect is fruitless. He still has no clue where he came from and why he ended up on Noah.

"You put me in the tank, Correct? You…save me?"

"Well, are you gonna say thank you?" Ben answers light heartedly.

"If that is the truth, a thank you is in order." Rook says.

They continue to move up the hill, across the bush, " You and I had an agreement upon your last death. If I saved you, then we would not mention your past ever again."

"Upon…death?"

"Yes, dude." Ben rolls his eyes, "why do you think you would need a healing tank anyway?"

"Then…why did you save me, if I truly abandon my life…"

Rook silences as he sees Ben kneel down in front of a gravestone. Ben sweeps the dusts off the stone with his callused hands, and puts down some flowers he picked up on the way. What a strange scene, Rook says to himself. Yet Ben's expression is closer to human than ever, his face is filled with softness, lonesome and ….equanimity. The whole world disappears in Rook's eyes, leaving him with this boy, his connection with the deceased, and the stories Ben quietly whispered.

As Ben stands up and walks away, Rook catches the names on the stone.

"Max Tennyson", "Sandra Tennyson", "Carl Tennyson"…


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"These…?"

"My parents and grandfather." Ben lifted his head, " They passed away seven years ago."

"Earth of seven years ago…" Rook did not understand why he possesses such knowledge, somehow he knew what happened seven years ago, "Eva Riot".

Historical, that riot nearly destroyed Galvan Prime and its residents. It is a conflict between Earthlings and Galvan. Earth signed an agreement with Galvan Prime back then, they granted the Galvans the permission to conduct gene experiment on human bodies. Rumor has it when everybody was fully evolved, human feared that other species would have same opportunity to grow even stronger, thus they destroyed Galvan Prime.

The planet was greatly harmed by the riot, most of the life forms fleet. Some of the human escaped onto Noah, some were caught by the intergalactic police.

If the rumor ended there, everything would eventually die down, but it didn't. The human on Noah is planning to kill off all the people got involved in the gene experiment from funder to scientist to prevent the secret of gaining ultimate power from being revealed. Within those seven, they went after up to hundreds of people in different solar systems, and assassinated them.

Till now, around 70% of the participants are dead. The rest of the wealthy funders must put a lot of pressure on the situation, so the intergalactic police had no choice but purposely tracing Noah.

" This…is that 'Noah'." Rook suddenly found the link between that story and this planet.

"It is, the drift star Noah…and you, Rook, are my bodyguard."

"…what…"

"Bodyguard….?" Rook frowned.

In exchange, Ben gave him a nod, "you were so close to death, your flame of life was fading away, so I took it."

"I…"Rook shook his head, he can't remember who he was, never to mention why he was seriously injured. " Why was I…near death?"

Like stepping on a silent mine, Ben's sudden stop of movement shut him up. His cape floated in the midair slowly tangled onto Rook's arm, Rook started to imagine this cape twining onto his neck, and everything would end there.

But Ben didn't, instead he drew the cape back and moved forward. Minutes passed before he open his mouth again, "because you don't like yourself."

"I…?"

"As I mentioned before, I promised you that I won't talk about your past when you wake up." Ben stopped on a green hill, looked back at Rook with those emotionless eyes, " I can only tell you, you don't treasure your life. And before you passed away, I asked you if you can forget the pass and stayed on Noah, could you try to live a new life. You agreed to my proposal, so there you are, here."

Rook nodded with hesitation. Of course he can only take Ben's explanation for now. Logically, nobody would be foolish enough to stay at this bull's eye planet where every police, assassin and bounty hunter is going after; nor would that person join this group to start with. But if that was the case, what was he thinking initially? Above all the confusion and questions, what bothered him most is the fact that he had all the knowledge of common sense of the universe, but none of those related to his past. His memory is locked in a box.

"Here…I should welcome you to our town, Rook. Welcome to Bellwood."

Ben leaned on the side, clear the view. The moment Rook saw the village, he felt home… without having the memory of his home planet.

Simple and beautiful views of f endless farms and gardens, people rushing in and out of the field…some people had features of other alien races, their skin, eyes, limbs are crewed with colorful scales, horns, mysterious metals or stone. Some of them are more human than the others. Although time has healed these people, they are smiling and producing, Rook can detect traces of trauma from their bodies.

He can barely process this information as he stood on the hill looking down.

"Humans are greedy, violent and vicious." He recalled these comments, and failed to make the connection. These people…are as hard working as his people under such cruel environment.

…his people?

"eh…" He felt the pain like needle punctured through the back of his head, Rook managed to hold on the a thing beside him while going through the dizziness.

"Brother!" He saw a little Revonnahgander girl and a few youngsters around him, circling around him.

"Blonko." He rise his head meeting the eye level of a couple. Those…are his parents?

"Are you alright?"

Rook blinked his eyes, realized the "thing" he grabbed onto - Ben. It's quiet a struggle for Ben to support Rook's weight consider their height differences. Ben straightens up his backbone with a frown on his face, a wipe of his hair fell across his forehead, covered up the blood stain of his enemy's scattered on his profile, accentuated his toxic green eyes.

- Enchantingly sexy.

"What-!" Rook jumped and trembled by his thoughts, making Ben dropped his knee a little.

"What the hell!" Ben let go of Rook's arm and got back on his feet, "don't push yourself."

"My apology." Rook agreed. Ben was right, he just woke up from the tank, fought, got to knew Ben and a little bit of his past. He is not able to digest such amount of information all in a few hours. Ben did not want to kill him, this has been established. Otherwise, he would had been killed twice today: when Ben touched his face to test the humidity of his fur, and just now.

"You must be tired, you can stay at my house, it will be yours from now on." Ben calmed his breath, started walking towards the village.

As they walk pass the village, Rook paid special attention to human's house designs. They prefer to use soft wooden materials for the surface and the props. Ben's house stands at the end of the street, insignificantly small and plain compare to others. Rook entered the house counting all the rooms, surprised by how completed this house is : Master bedroom , two guest rooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, game room. This house…feels like it belongs to a family.

"Rook, your room is the on the left side at the end of the hall, that used to be my room, don't expect too much decoration." Ben interrupted Rook's counting pointed at the hallway, then the kitchen. "There is food in the fridge, you can take whatever you want."

Rook nod in silence. His body demands rest more than consumption. He soon decided to head to the bedroom, and threw himself on the bed.

Dream-

Rooks cannot help to smile. He is not surprised about the dream. He suppressed too much memory into this subconsciousness. In result he has lucid dream.

"Rook!" A little boy with similar facial marking as him ran towards him and grab his hand, He knew this is his brother.

"Young one." And he can hear himself addressing the title of this boy.

"Rook, it is a long journey you were taking, have you seen anything exciting?" Little boy's tail sweeps from side to side.

"Yes indeed." Rook held the boy's hand, led him to another direction. Ben is there, in this dream, without those intimidating cape, spikes and armors, with a green and white hoodie.

"Young one." Ben waves at the boy.

"Hello." The boy cracked another smile, exposing his little fangs.

"Young one…where are our parents?" Rook politely asked the boy, unconsciously touching the diamond pendant on his neck, glanced at the same pendant on Ben's.

Young one, I want to introduce someone to father and mother…

"….!" Rook shot his eyes open, his pupil shrank into a line with distress.

What in the World was him dreaming?! He and…Ben? Rook face palmed.

It's not easy to tell from day to night on Noah, the sky is crimson red for most of the time. Rook stood up and looked at the starry night; the village has been shined so brightly, there were no needs for electricity.

He spaced out for a while, and decided to ignore his dream for now. He does not know where he is, being around Ben might still be a dangerous idea. That dream is unrealistic and …far fetching.

Looking at the stars he sighed. It feels like he has been like this before, sitting alone in front of a clear window, lost sights of what should be ahead.

"Gwen, how nice of you to visit, what do you want?"

Rook bends his shoulder over towards the yard. Ben and another two strangers are standing near the tree. He can tell how impatient Ben is from his tone. Ben does not want to converse with those two people.

The lady in red leans on the guy, "My cousin, why the bad mood? Your pet was awake today, right?"

Pet? Rook is positively that the woman was referring to him.

"This is really none of your business, Gwen." Ben's voice darkens as he was ready to leave.

"Fine then, but…" Gwen rise her hand and pop out a bottle of black liquid, send it over to Ben, " Rather than letting things get out of hand, it's necessary to keep him obedient."

"Like what you have done to Kevin?" That comment directly sets off Ben's bomb; Rook can feel the anger and sense of slaughter from Ben, it makes his hair stand up. He quietly observes those two people. They are definitely not in the same age group as Ben. The lady in black and red skirt is mature, as was the guy.

How … strange , the guy standing behind that lady is silent, lifeless, he has not talked for the whole time…He is alive, that is all Rook can tell.

"Kevin…" Gwen choked, shied away from this direct conflict, "He's willing to do so."

"So you can use him as a slave? Gwen, you know I have my mission, and I need Kevin as a team member." Ben clenched the bottle so hard it starts to crack.

"You have new pet, right? And I just gave you the tool." Gwen took out another file, "it's also a good time to test his abilities."

Rook and Ben both focus on Gwen's file.

Within a second, Ben's smile is filled with menace.

"You found the next target." Ben flips through a few pages.

"Yes… we could proceed."

"Very well, I will arrange time for this target, give me two weeks." Ben seems to be satisfied with the result; he no longer pays much attention on the human couple.

Gwen looks away from Ben with a hint of sadness, with a purple flash, she and the dark hair man vanish into thin air.

My words:

Done translating this chapter, Man…I don't write anything exciting do I? lol

And yes, Young one is calling Rook "Rook" in his lucid dream; Rook didn't want to remember his real name.

Happy Easter?


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